Lots of dueling on Sunday, but first….

Diamondbacks 5, @Rockies 3 — Mark Trumbo homered in a 4th straight game, for a share of the club record and a personal milestone — and this time, the Snakes actually won. They’d lost his first four HR games by a combined 20 runs. Wade Miley went 8 strong for his (and his team’s) 2nd win, and had his first 3-hit game, the first by a hurler this year.

• Pitchers hit .132 last year, 3rd-worst since 1940 (the start of searchable data); record low was .129 the year before. Best hitting year for pitchers in this span was 1951, .185 BA — led by Carl Scheib, .396 with a 1.041 OPS, but a 1-12 mark on the mound.
• Just one other team has homered four straight games this year (Detroit).
• In 1999, Mark McGwire hit 39 of his 65 HRs in St. Louis’s 86 losses, the most for one season. Next three marks are by Sammy Sosa — 32 in 2001, 29 each in 1998-99.

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Rangers 3, @Rays 0 — Yu Darvish and Alex Cobb both went 7 shutout frames, the former using just 89 pitches in his delayed debut. Elvis Andrus fired the game’s first shot in the 8th, his first ever that late in a game, on a full count from Joel Peralta.

• It’s often all or nothing with Peralta. Since 2005, he has the 19th-best OBP of 127 RPs with 300+ innings, but the 3rd-highest home-run percentage.

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@Nationals 2, Braves 1 — Taylor Jordan and the Nats enjoyed Ian Desmond’s 7th-inning efforts, first to keep things knotted, then to untie them with a wallop of Alex Wood’s very next delivery. Two last-gasp infield hits gave Atlanta hope, but Jason Heyward swung through a full-count pitch from Rafael Soriano; he went 0-5 from the leadoff spot.

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Orioles 3, @Tigers 1 — Chris Tillman and Justin Verlander both went 8+, the first such game this year. Nick Markakis tripled in the 8th, helping Bal’mer forge ahead.

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@Pirates 2, Cards 1 — Adam Wainwright outlasted Edinson Volquez, but he gave up the go-ahead run on a 2-out double by Tony Sanchez, which cashed the Cardinal’s rare leadoff walk to Pedro Alvarez. Bucs’ bullpen got 10 outs from 10 batters, the biggest ones by Tony Watson, who earned the victory by fanning 3 of 4 and stranding men on the corners in the 6th when it was tied. Jason Grilli began the 9th with a 4-pitch walk, but he worked ahead of Matt Holliday and started then started a 1-6-3 DP.

• The Cards were held to 3 hits — and by the way, they’re 6 for 42 so far with men in scoring position.

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ChiSox 5, @Royals 1 — Chris Sale and James Shields both nailed up zeroes until the 7th, when Alexei Ramirez scooched a 2-out grounder past Alcides Escobar to score Conor Gillaspie. Sale got a DP to end the 8th, closing his book at 4 singles plus a walk, and the Sox pulled away in the 9th.

• My first reaction to that grounder was, “E-6.” But I looked again and saw how far he ranged to get there, and I thought of all the shortstops who wouldn’t have come close. I’m sure Escobar thinks he should have made the play, since the run was crucial at the time, but he’s not to blame.

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Padres 4, @Marlins 2 — Pinch-hitter Alexi Amarista broke up Nate Eovaldi’s shutout with 2 gone in the 7th, golfing a tough 2-2 curve for a 3-run shot after fouling six away. That made Ian Kennedy a winner for his six innings (1 run, 3 hits), and made Amarista a happy birthday boy. Yonder Alonso put icing on the cake, driving in the Pads’ 4th run for a new season high.

• NL pinch-hitters have 5 HRs in 158 tries, a 3.0% HR rate and .718 OPS, compared to last year’s 1.9% and .622.
• Huston Street has saved both Friars wins, retiring all six batters and throwing just 4 balls out of 20 pitches.

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Brewers 4, @Red Sox 0 — Yovani Gallardo needed 109 pitches to get 20 outs, but he kept the BoSox out of the walk column and off the scoreboard to complete the sweep.

• Last time Boston started 0-3 at home was 1984.
• Last time the Crew won three straight games in Boston was the close of 1993; their other Fenway sweeps of 3 or more were at the ends of ’91 and ’85.
• Are some pitchers “effectively wild”? Gallardo’s ERA is 3.68 in his 12 career walk-free starts, and 3.69 when he walks any. All SPs last year had (as you’d expect) a big advantage when they didn’t walk a man, with a 3.34 ERA vs. 4.14 otherwise. But that could just mean that the population of no-walk starts is dominated by good pitchers like Cliff Lee.

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@Astros 7, Angels 4 — Houston hit a sort of home-run cycle off Jered Weaver: fastball, curve, slider, change. (‘Least, I’m told that was a change; not easy to tell with Weaver lately.) They’re the first to mash five taters in a game this year, and the 8th since 1914 to do so with no more than 3 other baserunners.

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And to Jack Morris, a happy 30th anniversary of his no-hitter, helping kick off a wonderful year Detroit fans.